Engaged in a frenzied firefight and outnumbered by the Taliban, Navy Lt. Michael Murphy made a desperate decision as he and three fellow SEALs fought for their lives on a rocky mountainside in Afghanistan's Kunar Province in 2005. In a last-ditch effort to save his team, Murphy pulled out his satellite phone, walked into a clearing to get reception and called for reinforcements as a fusillade of bullets ricocheted around him. One of the bullets hit him, but he finished the call and even signed off, "Thank you." Then he continued the battle. Murphy, who was 29 when he died, graduated from Pennsylvania State University and was accepted to multiple law schools, but decided he could do more for his country as one of the Navy's elite SEALS. On June 28, 2005, the day he was killed, Murphy was leading a SEAL team in northeastern Afghanistan looking for the commander of a group of insurgents known as the Mountain Tigers. The Operation Red Wings reconnaissance team rappelled down from a helicopter at night and climbed through rain to a spot 10,000 feet high overlooking a village to keep a lookout. But the mission was compromised the following morning when three local goat herders happened upon their hiding spot. High in the Hindu Kush mountains, Murphy and Petty Officers Marcus Luttrell of Huntsville, Texas; Matthew Axelson of Cupertino, Calif.; and Danny Dietz of Littleton, Colo.; held a tense discussion of the rules of engagement and the fate of the three goat herders, who were being held at gunpoint. If they were Taliban sympathizers, then letting the herders go would allow them to alert the Taliban forces lurking in the area; killing them might ensure the team's safety, but there were issues of possible military charges and a media backlash, according to Luttrell, the lone survivor. Murphy, who favored letting the goat herders go, guided a discussion of military, political, safety and moral implications. A majority agreed with him. An hour after the herders were released, more than 100 Taliban armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades opened fire, attacking from higher elevation, and maneuvering to outflank the SEALs By the end of the two-hour firefight, Murphy, Dietz and Axelson were dead. The tragedy was compounded when 16 rescuers — eight additional SEALs and eight members of the Army's elite "Night Stalkers" — were killed when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. ======================================================= what y'al think? He is certainly a hero and a brave soldier but do you think he should have bent the rules of engagement and kept the goat herders? If he kept the 3 goat herders until their mission is complete or change of location, him and the 16 US soldiers would have been still here. Thoughts....
Personally, I feel that the 3 herders should have been held until their mission was was completed. Unfortunately, the very people who are NOT there fighting the war (congress) are the very ones directing it. Thus, the constant fear of doing the thing that makes the most sense at that particular time. War is not clean, therefore it makes no sense to try and fight it that way.
I would have followed the rules of engagement. He died but he died with honor. We are going to die, but what do you want people to think about you when you are gone. He killed innocent people. He served his country and died with honor.
Small units do not have the recourses to take prisoners. This generally is not an option. If you take prisoner, they you MUST ensure their safety even before the safety of yourself or your men. Generally recon teams are anywhere from 2 - 6 men with limited firepower and limited gear. Generally this isn't an option.
Why not gag and bind them and leave them behind somewhere in one of the many caves located within the mountains there?
